SIX MONTHS ON…

Part 18 of 18 serialised by Nuance, New Straits Times

31st May 2003

As I am writing this entry, we are 5 days from releasing the record. As this will be the last episode of my recording diary, I thought it timely to fill you in on happenings since we wrapped recording some 6 months ago.

Ronan left Kuala Lumpur on the morning of the 13th November 2002. He arrived in LA next morning and immediately started production on another record. Given how fatigued he was when he left town, I was amazed that he could do anything other than sleep for a month. But I guess the industry wisdom of ‘if you don’t love it, don’t even think about doing it’, applies to a record producer as it does to musicians. Truth is, Ronan simply loves making records.

Ronan’s departure left me with a dilemma vis-a-vis the 3 songs I was not happy with. After some careful thought, I decided to re-mix the entire record. It wasn’t an easy decision because I didn’t have the money. In fact, I could only afford it by using the money originally intended for marketing the record. This left the project with a promotional budget of exactly zero. Still, I was not prepared to release the record when 30% of it irked me. That basically left me no choice but to go for a re-mix.

Yet, wanting a re-mix was one thing, finding the right mixing engineer to do it is quite another. To this end, I am grateful to Peter Chong (chief engineer at Synchrosound) for not only agreeing to re-mix my record, but also for doing it brilliantly, and for nothing. Coming as he did into the project without any involvement at the pressurized recording stage meant that Peter benefited from an objective attitude that was crucial to getting the mixes right. When Ronan eventually heard Peter’s mix in March, he had nothing but good things to say, and personally thanked Peter for doing a great job. According to Ronan, he was completely ‘stoked’ when he heard the new mix.

The decision to re-mix also allowed me the chance to exact radical surgery to the songs that troubled me. I expanded on several instruments in ‘Marianne Called’, so much so that it is now in my opinion one of the strongest tracks on the record. A different approach to mixing ‘Hush Marianne’ turned it around too. Unfortunately, no surgery could save ‘Last Good Man’, which has been left out of the album altogether. Still, we now have 10 tracks on the record, all of which I am pleased with.

Having finally arrived at a point where I was happy with the album, the tapes were sent to Hong Kong to be mastered by my old friend and mentor Leo Fung. He would eventually do an amazing job mastering the record and added a subtlety to the sound that wasn’t there before.

In the mean time, I worked with the artwork team to conceptualise and produce the album cover. The team included film director Dain Said, award-winning cinematographer Teoh Gay Hian, installation artist Hayati Mokhtar, graphics designer Carl Dunford and indie filmmaker Ho Yuhang. I cannot say enough of these people. Not only did they achieve world-class quality artwork, most of them worked for nothing.

Then, just as I was beginning to worry about my lack of promotional budget, things began to snowball unexpectedly. First, one of the country’s best website design shops (Arachnid) offered to sponsor my website. Then Voxel Imaging offered to do a music video for pretty much nothing. Then Pony Canyon agreed to distribute the record in Malaysia. Then distributor interests from Hong Kong and China firmed up. Then Sunday Times generously agreed to serialise my recording diaries in exchange for a few banner adverts – that’s how you got to read about my project in these pages.

In truth, there are tonnes of stuff that I’ve missed out in these published diaries. These ranged from attempts to seek sponsors, negotiations with distributors, dealings with printers and CD factories as well as the trying to get a publicity campaign underway with practically no budget. Even the entries you’ve read on these pages have been edited extensively for brevity compared to the 35,000 words original that I posted to my mailing list. Either way, I think we’ve done really well up to this point. But it could never have been possible without help from loads of people – from publicists to fans to media people and friends who are sympathetic to the effort. In fact, it is incredible how the record has consistently received support from people who have no business helping it. I guess I have been extremely lucky.

Still, less than a week to launch. To say I am not nervous would be lying. But underlying the nervousness is a feeling that, no matter what happens in the next few months, it has been an amazing adventure. I have a huge amount of people to thank for their generosity, including you of course, for putting up with this journal for 4 months. But to list all the people I have to thank here would be way too cheesy, so I won’t. Suffice to say that such generosity will never be forgotten.

It only remains for me to add the following:

(i) Ronan and I continue to work together towards securing global distribution for the record. The depressed state of the music business means that it will be a tough endeavor. But Ronan believes this record should be widely heard and initial reponse has been encouraging from many quarters.

(ii) Digit Studio, where most of the events described in the diary took place, has sadly gone out of business. A combination of music piracy and economic downturn has meant that it is now difficult for professional recording studios to survive in Malaysia. John the assistant engineer at the studio has since found employment as a technical trainee at The Actors Studio.

(iii) Sherry disappeared off my horizons a few weeks after production wrapped. I have tried many times to make contact with him, but have not succeeded. I have no idea where he is today, or why he decided to cut off contact with me. Perhaps his life on the fringe conspired against further association with mine, one from entirely a different world.

(iv) Lewis and I meet often. We joke about going on a world tour whenever we meet. Meanwhile, his prowess on the drums has not gone unnoticed by Ronan. It is very likely they will work together on future projects in LA.

(v) Hayakawa and I have continued our correspondence and have ongoing plans to work together on future projects. One of his bands, The Coil, visited Kuala Lumpur in March and I guested in one of their gigs here. His new solo record, entitled ‘Kowloon’, is one of the weirdest and most interesting records I’ve heard in recent years.

(vi) Kum Loong continues to play restaurant, weddings and other functions when he is not teaching the Erhu. We meet as often as our schedules allow.

(vii) The project’s main hope for a radio hit, ‘Jesselton Tonight’, is already receiving airplay on several Malaysian radio stations as we speak. I have no idea whether this will be sustained. I guess it depends on whether people request it often enough.

(viii) The album is called ‘Rustic Living For Urbanites’. It has a headless man on the cover holding a red suitcase. You’ll find it in most chain record stores in Malaysia.

I have gone on for too long and shall stop now. Thanks for listening. It’s been a cool ride so far. Let’s hope it keeps getting more interesting. Wish me luck.

See you around.